Damage Control

Incoming Transmission
Source Identifier: Delicate Granite # Starlight Ebbing
Destination Identifier: TE3-Firebrand#Her Glorious Command#Starlight Ebbing#Muse IX#Endeavour#Unquiet Journey#*
Subject: Orion Gate Investigation
Message Begins

To all those anxious to investigate the Keter System Interstellar Gate “Orion”,

Owing to the extraordinary circumstances and desire to eliminate harmful misinformation surrounding the malfunctioning of the Interstellar Gate, the Aspexx Corporation has agreed to work alongside the Galactic Cooperation to permit third party investigators to inspect the damaged Orion Station in order to ascertain its status, divine viable repairs, and to determine the facts of the situation.

Since Gate Technology is proprietary, all third party investigators will be signed under a non-negotiable Class E Non-Disclosure Agreement upheld by the Galactic Cooperation as is standard for third party affairs pertaining to Gate Technology. Verified and shareable findings will be distributed by the Galactic Cooperation representative in due course after the Mission.

Interested parties should make their interest known direct to myself. Interest is not in itself a guarantee of contract. Successful applicants will be contacted with further details about the Mission and all prospective applicants are advised that no guarantees of safety can be given.

Awaiting your response,

Cpt. Delicate Granite, Starlight Ebbing, Aspexx Corporation
Cpt. Stalwart Band, Firebrand-TE3

Message Ends
End Transmission

• Tiny Ember - Iain
• Languid Relaxation - Mike
• Warded Path - Tamsin
• Gathering Flow - Phil

• The party are briefed on Starlight Ebbing, after signing extensive Non-Disclosure Agreements and Personal Injury Waivers in favour of the Aspexx Corporation, that they are to go into the debris of the Orion Station in order to retrieve its Solar Shielded Flight Recorder. They are told explicitly to only debrief to Aspexx and that non-proprietary information would then be released to the Galactic Cooperation via the Firebrand.
• After piloting a shuttle through the debris field, the party eject from it and fight their way in space through waves of Decay to an atmosphere generator that they're able to restore thanks to a “blessing” from the Starlight Ebbing Ship Heart. They also get a portable gravity generator working and use this to traverse further in.
• They encounter the ruined cafeteria in which they are horrified to find that what they thought might be Survivors were in fact grotesque puppets being piloted by Decay. Tiny Ember is particularly distressed to recognise one of the workers from the simulation she witnessed previously. Flow and Master Languid both suffer lingering effects from the Decaying creatures here.
• Pressing on into the hangar they find a strange anomaly that causes them great strife to enter, but within they find a computer terminal with ship manifests that Tiny Ember pockets as potentially invaluable. Ember, Master Languid, and Path all suffer strange effects from passing in and out of the anomaly.
• Once through a malfunctioning holodeck, past Decaying Raktors and a Decaying Vitruvian Splatterbeast (much to the party's distress) they enter a blown out chamber where they might have expected a core.
• At the core, there is indeed a Solar Shielded Flight Recorder. After some intense gravitational difficulties, the party retrieve it, and then as Tiny Ember is busy calling for Starlight Ebbing to extract them, Warded Path calls on Endeavour to Intervene and get them out instead.
• They arrive on Endeavour, and Tiny Ember informs Aspexx of their location. Flow uses an Intervention to resolve her Decay Curse.

• No sooner have the party arrived on Endeavour in a transport room designed for the purpose of emergency pick-ups than the ship receives a high priority transmission from Starlight Ebbing making it abundantly clear the legal ramifications that the Zeitgeist Research Department will encounter should they communicate anything with the exploratory party. While the ZRD are obviously interested in finding out what happened, and Gathering Flow is happy to tell them, the intensity and severity of the legal threats being levelled are enough to convince Blistering Quarry to submit to Aspexx's demands for the time being. A shuttle is sent over to collect the team and they are returned to the Starlight Ebbing where they debrief thoroughly with Dark Water, recounting everything they found.
• In particular they note:
  • The high Decay area seems to have decayed living creatures
  • The strange anomaly that they entered to get the Ship Manifests
  • Endeavour's Ship Heart was made aware of the strange Decay aspects but that's only to be expected from Startouched attuned to it, and was otherwise only used as a quick extraction
• They deliver the Solar Shielded Recorder, and Tiny Ember delivers the data drive with Ship Manifests to make up for the altercation on Ace's World, which is received gratefully.
• With a thorough explanation of the danger and description of the events from Path and Master Languid, and a most successfully completed Mission, everyone receives 5 Clout.
• Master Languid uses some of this Clout to request a full medical exam to determine what can be done about the geometric uncertainty that his brain is struggling to process since interacting with the anomaly. They are able to prescribe a bespoke course of geometric neurotherapy in the private medbay and rectify the problem before it can get any worse. They also notice the parasite he picked up from More Like Guidelines and remove it just before it hatches.
• While Master Languid pays for the expediency of private healthcare for this, a similar approach is resolved for Warded Path by the Zeitgeist Research Department on Endeavour, and Tiny Ember similarly resolves her issue with the medical professionals aboard Firebrand, though it takes longer for them.
• In the extra time he has available thanks to paying his way through treatment, Master Languid boasts about his work to any Altarian Dynast who will listen and successfully generates an air of mystique and danger about himself. Pentagonal Pectoral is duly impressed and feels confident in their trust of him.
• Gathering Flow does return the ID card of Flying Beachhead to her brother aboard Starlight Ebbing, though her attempt to not so subtly twist the guard's emotions by saying she can't say more because of the NDA doesn't go down particularly well. It seems the Aspexx Guard trusts Aspexx and he doesn't take kindly to the insinuations being made against his employer. Flow does avoid further reputational damage with Aspexx by impressing upon Blistering Quarry and other ZRD specialists the importance of keeping the thorough debrief she performs with them top secret. They, miraculously, do, though this does mean that only high up ZRD members are aware of the unfiltered happenings.
• Master Languid also pulls a Clout with Aspexx to keep ahold of the portable Gravity Generator for future use.
• The full report from Aspexx is delivered some time later, making the following information publicly known:
  • The Orion Gate has been destroyed beyond repair.
  • All Orion Gate systems were functioning correctly until the moment of the catastrophe.
  • The catastrophe was not instigated from outside the station.
  • The catastrophe was not instigated from within the gate.
  • The Orion Gate disaster zone is heavily decayed and new forms of Decay creature as yet properly documented have been sighted, including the possibility for living beings to decay.
• The report fails to mention the following points, which are known only to those who were on the Mission, or to those with high levels of Clout with the Zeitgeist Research Department / Endeavour or Aspexx Corporation / Starlight Ebbing:
  • There are strange anomalies within the Station that seem to be the result of a very strange reaction between Ship Hearts and Very High Levels of Decay. These Anomalies can be entered at a particularly strong mental cost.
  • A large number of Raktors and a Vitriuvian Splatterbeast were (and still are) loose amidst the debris and are decayed.
  • The Decayed people on the station spoke directly to the explorers, and warned about the dangers of tunnelling and “using” them to travel.

• Information is publicised about the Orion Gate Disaster.
• Aspexx Corporation are still looking for additional information to determine the cause of the catastrophe, determining the Flight Recorder still to be insufficient.

• +5 Clout with the Aspexx Corporation, or +1 Clout with any other faction.

• +2 Clout previously lost restored with the Aspexx Corporation from Picking Up The Pieces.
• Undergoes geometric neurotherapy to eliminate the Anomalous Mental Effect.

• -2 Clout with the Aspexx Corporation to remove the Anomalous Mental Effect and Parasite
• -1 Clout with the Aspexx Corporation to take the Portable Gravity Generator
• Portable Gravity Generator - activating this during encounters with the Low Gravity modifier will allow you and your party to ignore this effect while close to large metal objects.
• Removed Parasite picked up from More Like Guidelines.
• Curse: Latent Decay
  • Next time you take a Severe Injury there will be a Decaying flavour to it.
• +1 Clout with Altarian Dynasty for boasting

• Undergoes geometric neurotherapy to eliminate the Anomalous Mental Effect.

• -1 Clout with Aspexx Corporation for trying to manipulate a loyal guard's grief
• Cleansed of the Latent Decay curse
• +2 Clout with Zeitgeist Research Department / Endeavour for debriefing with them anyway
• Risk of significant Clout loss with Aspexx Corporation if breach of NDA is discovered.